Melbourne 2014 - Point Cook Air Show : Part 3

So here's a bunch of photos from the Point Cook Air Show. Starting with some of the static displays.

 The Tiger attack helicopter was very cool and the pilots were very talkative and friendly. The helmets are just amazing as was the weapons systems.

C17 , Just simply Huge

Inside the C17 

Will taking a rest in the C17

Below, the drone was a lot larger than I expected 

 Here's a bunch of shots, just one or two or the many I shot.

My painting desk misses me

So many photos from last weekend to go through, so little time to paint. I think my painting desk is missing me. Every time I look at it, it seems to be messier than last time. I’ll put the air show photos up tomorrow, and spend tonight relaxing and taking care of my awesome wife.

Melbourne 2014 Trip – Part 2

So day two saw an early start with a walk down town to catch the bus for our day tour trip that we had booked. The tour was in thee parts, first stop was after an hour or so drive, a quick tea break and a short walk in the forest. They had a setup where you could feed the Sulfur Crested Cockatoos. (Noisy bloody birds that's for sure). Lot's and Lots and Lots of tourists, about 6 bus loads in fact, so we were happy to move on from there.

After that it was onto a train ride at the Puffing Billy. It was a small train ride of about half an hour I think,(lost track of time at that point) It was great to see the old trains all done up and the old boys having fun running them. There were lots of kids and a couple of young guys working the train as well, so I shot lots of people shots which is not my style at all. I'm quietly pleased with the outcome, especially once i converted several to b/w.

Colin our tour guide and driver had a great sense of humor.

From the train station we then went onto lunch at a vineyard. The food was awesome and they catered to my crazy food allergies.

Then onto the Healesville Sanctuary which was the real reason for taking the tour. The Cassowary was great to see, having seen them up really close in the wild (a whole other story) It was great to see this young one with bight vibrant colours. That says a lot about the Sanctuary and how well they run the place and look after the animals. I’ll be going back for sure.

Now of course I’m a reptile person, No idea why I love them, probably the whole dragon thing. Anyway they had a good selection of reptiles, and my flash really upset one of them, he was hissing at me (I’m sure of it) although you  couldn't hear it through the glass. Due to lack of time I didn't stay there long, I would have stayed there for hours. But I managed to shoot off a few good frames of them. This first shot is unusual, the normal red eye of flash that humans gets is grey in snakes as I found out.

Flash = One pissed-off snake

The pythons were awesome, this shot is actually a photo stack of different  focus points, worked out far better than I had expected. (Gotta love Photoshop tools)

 So that was the second day of our trip, the real fun begins with two days of air show. Lot's and Lots of photos to come.

Melbourne 2014 – Point Cook Air Show

So our journey begins last Thursday with a long trip to the airport at 3am. With the motorway closed and detours in place. Followed by the check in system crashing while we were checking in, this made the waiting after we got through security short, or it felt short anyway. On the flight over I ended up beside a Chinese man that I can only describe as a skunk , he emitted a stench that was seriously offensive , I mean really bad body odor. I was grateful to get off the plane and into fresh air.

From there the day got a lot better with a quick trip into town on the Sky Bus and onto our Hotel, which had our room ready when we got there at about 9.30 am. After a nice lunch on Lygon street we hit the streets at a blistering pace. Yep, blisters is what I got by the end of the night. We covered a lot of the streets searching out the allies with the graffiti art in them. Thanks to Will's research he had most of them mapped out and they weren't too hard to find.

Meet and talked to a couple of the artists while they were doing there thing. There was some pretty amazing artwork about which kept evolving even in the four days we were there.

AD/DC Lane

Caught tram up to the Shrine of Remembrance which was impressive in scale, and then did a short walk in the botanical gardens but we weren't in the mood for getting fried as it was getting to hot out in the open.

Shrine of Remembrance

Stopped in at a watering hole for a drink, then onto more walking about and shooting street scenes, dinner then back to hotel to crash. A very fun but long day one.

a bit of fun playing around with Lightroom effects. 

The Centenary of Military Aviation Air Show 2014

I'm back in NZ after four awesome days in Melbourne, two of which were spent at the Point Cook Centenary of Military Aviation Air Show 2014. With 9,500 photos and a few videos shot, I've got a lot of sorting to do (and deleting all the crap). So there will be heaps of photos to put up later on in the week.

I shot this fly by of the Sabre more for the sound and to see if I could actually hand hold my 400mm lens steady to get a half decent shot. The outcome was pretty average, and what I expected. But it gives you a sense of the event and the commentary. The background music they had playing all day really added to the atmosphere, especially when the jets were flying. An awesome event. Lots more to come.